A third entry in the franchise, called Skylanders: Swap Force, is due out this fall from Vicarious Visions. As its name suggests, Swap Force will feature toys whose tops and bottoms are interchangeable.

I dig em. I don't play the game, but my children do, and they have a blast doing so. A 3 pack is $20 and a single one is about $10. You basically open up whole new avenues to play the game and access other areas with other characters. I love how people call this "crap" and we should "stop buying it for our kids". Are you a parent? Have you even interacted with the game at all, ever? What's the difference between, say, buying these or buying our children Transformer toys, or lego sets? Sure, they are part of a videogame, but they also play with them outside of the videogame. They interact with them, use their imagination and come up with some epic stories. I only allow my kids to play videogames 3-4 days of the week and only after homework and dinner is done. The other days involve using your imagination, playing outside, creating art, doing crafts at home or some sort of family game night. Call it corny if you want, but as a 40 something year old dad, I think they're kind of cool for the kids. Growing up I had Star Wars figures, Microids, GI Joe , Evil Knievel, etc. I wish I had something as fun as the Skylanders for our Atari when I was a kid. The fact that my kids get so much enjoyment out of them makes the price for them moot. I've bought my children $50-$60 lego sets, even the higher priced ones over $100 bucks and you know what? My kids get more play out of a $10 action playset figure than they do out of the more expensive lego sets. They build them once, and then they get torn apart to build imaginary fortresses or battle grounds for their lego figures. So, kudos to Activision for having the balls to back something that might not have made it otherwise.